The end of 2015 is just a couple weeks away, and I thought this would be a good time to wrap up the last updates of the year (and some plans for the coming year).
Halloween - This year I got to celebrate one of my favorite holidays in a country that primarily doesn't even know about Halloween. I asked a few of my friends in my village if they celebrated halloween, and I got many confused looks. I started to explain that people dress up in costumes and go around door to do getting candy, but quickly stopped when I realized how similar this may sound to Gule Wamkulu (the cultural dance of the Chewa people; performers wear full costumes and perform at major cultural events/ initiations). Needless to say people in my village had no idea what Halloween was, but in major cities like Blantyre there is a large enough western influence that quite a few dress up and go to dancing on Halloween. A bunch of PCVs and myself all met up in Blantyre and went out for the night. We dressed up - which was hilarious to the other customers at the restaurant, but a hit at the bar afterwards! Many Malawians have yelled "Jesus!" at me as a walked by, so it seemed obvious to dress up like Jesus for halloween. Christianity is the most common religion in Blantyre, so I was slightly concerned dressing up as their messiah may come across rudely - but throughout the night I got nothing but laughs and compliments. All in all Halloween was a great time, despite being so far from trick-or-treating or jack-o-lanterns.
Thanksgiving Weekend - Best holiday to date. We had a larger gathering at a PCV's house a couple hours away. It was one of the hottest spots in Malawi, but the great friends and delicious food made it bearable. My mom sent smoked salmon, which was one of the highlights of the day. Some of the other PCVs from America hadn't even had smoked salmon before! We didn't have chips, but we sliced cucumber at it was almost as good. For dinner we had a massive feast made of KFC (yes, Kentucky Friend Chicken, the only fast food store in country), two types of mashed potatoes, two types of gravy, stuffing (from america), green bean casserole, homemade bread, lentils, pumpkin pie (from scratch), brownies, three types of cake, and four types of bucket wine. It was so much food! Everyone worked hard to contribute in some part to the meal (I brought the salmon, mashed potatoes, gravy, and three types of bucket wine). We had fun staying up late eating and talking with all our friends we haven't seen in months.
The weekend also brought with it an unexpected reason to be thankful. We we were walking in Blantyre just after sunset to a restaurant about 10 min from our hotel. We debated taking a taxi, but decided it was close enough and early enough that it would be fine (we were in a group of 10 anyway). One block from the restaurant, on a section of road that had no street lamps or stores, we were attacked by three thieves. They grabbed the bag from one of my friends and then pushed her to the ground, all while somehow making sparks fly all around us (it looked like fireworks or something scraping on the ground). We quickly ran the last block to the restaurant (which had a gate and guard inside) and told the guard what had happened. He apologized and said he was sad people would do that to us - but said there was nothing to do now that they ran). A police report was filed the next morning in hopes that the bag, smartphone, and other belongings might be found, but it's not likely.
All said and in the past, this year really made me thankful in quite a few ways I haven't appreciated back in America.
Government Meetings - As a Peace Corps Volunteer I am an Ambassador on behalf of the United States in all the work I do. And as such, I get the privilege of working with major government organizations in their efforts to develop Malawi (for me, specifically in the health field). I was recently invited by Peace Corps to be a representative of their health efforts in my district at a meeting organized by USAID. It was a large group of officials from various organizations working with USAID in my area, and our goal was to find ways of coordinating our efforts to best utilize our funds and expertise. It was a little nerve racking to be in a government level meeting like this (I'll admit, quite a bit of the acronyms and government level intricacies I didn't understand), but I left with new connections and hopefully some future work to be done with USAID at a national level.
RAIN - THE MOST IMPORTANT TOPIC IN THIS POST. Finally we are getting rain! We've been waiting all through hot season (some days got to 108*F; my house stayed above 90*F for over two months even at night; I didn't stop sweating for two and a half months) for some relief and finally its here. It's still pretty irregular, maybe only once a week for an hour or less, but it's one of the most exciting things in my life haha. Just yesterday my house went all the way down to 83* - I forgot it could feel that cold! There's a Malawian belief that the first rains are a signal that it's time to dig your gardens (the rain makes the soil softer and easier to work). Fortunately for me our community gardens are nearing completion; and my home garden is already thriving.
Pad Project - There's been a lot of hype from Peace Corps about gender equality and women's empowerment in the recent weeks, and coincidentally I also helped lead a session for women in my surrounding villages about how to sew your own reusable pads. Pads arn't cheap here (just like America), and with poverty reducing the wallets of villagers many women resort to unsafe measures to deal with menstruation. So by teaching women to make their own reusable pads (that can be washed and used many times) we are able to deal with this specific health concern. Men rarely get involved in things related to feminine hygiene, but there is no reason why not to - especially if you are able to help.
Mental Health - December has turned out to be a pretty uneventful month (at least till xmas gets here), and as such I've found new ways of applying myself. I mentioned in a previous post that I was elected to VDAS (volunteer diversity and support) as the volunteer support chair of the Health2015 group. In college I studied psychology, and I have plans of going to grad school when I return to focus on the same subject. I have been applying what I learned in my undergraduate degree to Peace Corps by compiling a collection of short powerpoint presentations focusing on different tools to foster positive mental health for PCVs. The goal of these presentations is to equip new volunteers with modern, researched, and applicable tools to help cope with the unique stress experienced by PCVs serving so far from home. So far I have completed presentations on Flow (developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), MBSR (developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn), and Flow (developed by Martin Seligman). I plan to touch on areas of cultural psychology as well as Jungian psychology also. Its been exciting to work with psychology again, and I hope my work can have a positive impact on Peace Corps Malawi (and maybe beyond).
Nutrition and Cooking Demos - Along with working on my mental health presentations I have also been completing another tool other PCVs can benefit from in Malawi. I have compiled an incredible amount of information about local foods including english names, local names, prices, nutritional value (measured in daily value), ranking of foods by nutrient, definitions of nutrients, and more. It's been a big project, and I've spent quite a bit of time - but its finally complete (or at least a work in progress). This has been a tool I've used while preparing for my two month long cooking demo project..
My cooking demo project is just around the corner, and it's the first project I've organized with funding from grants! We will be receiving around $80 - $100 that will be used to buy pots, pans, utensils, water buckets, food, and everything else we need to run cooking demos twice a week for two months! Malnutrition is a serious problem in my area, and I have observed that the best way to deal with this issue is to lead cooking demos. My first few months at site were devoted to perma-gardens; without food people simply can't eat. Food is sold in the market, but it is expensive - so by planting your own you can save money and afford things like cooking oil and charcoal/firewood that is needed to prepare the food. Now that I have shared how to get the food, my hope is to share how to prepare this food in new and healthy meals! I'm focusing primarily on parents of children under 5 years and people living with HIV/AIDS. We have a wide variety of dishes that will be prepared: refried beans, okra tacos, 6 food group porridge for children, stew, poached eggs, and more! It seems my 6+ years of restaurant experience is finally coming into use - I'm opening my first restaurant (well.. sort of..). We are expecting to feed at least 30 people each week, and hopefully more with smaller portions (the goal is to learn how to cook the food; no as much to get a free meal). Fingers crossed, first demo starts is in January!
Well that's all for now - I hope to have another update at the start of the new year after christmas and new years eve. Been missing home a lot lately, can't wait to see old friends in 2017 - I just have a few things to do before then. I'm attaching some pictures below, hope you enjoy these still windows into my life here!
^ Rainbow as I was waiting for the bus in my village
^ Creepy grasshopper looking thing on the fruit bowl
^ Kitten! (not mine... but may be..)
^ Peace Corps, one of the few government jobs you can hold while having a beard like this.
'^ My leopard tortoise, Zemba ("escape"), loves eating weeds in my garden - got this action shot a few days after the first rain when there were weeds all over my garden
^ Our thanksgiving feast! (desserts not shown)
^ Thanksgiving PCV Family (with parents that were visiting at the time also)
^ Making Pads
^ My single favorite meal right now; chapati and soya pieces (basically tacos and fake meat stuff). I've gotten really good at making my own tortillas!
^ The coolest cockroach I've seen yet
^ moth
^ My neighbor friend Blessings learning how to play the banjo (or at least learning how to hit it so it makes noise)
^ My cat, Zima (short for Zimachitika, or "things happen"), sleeping in my basil plants
^ The youngest garden to come to my perma-garden trainings
^ Spider on my roof
^ Madidi Lodge in Lilongwe -I got to visit this beautiful lodge and get a one hour massage on my trip to Lilongwe. First massage, and it was incredible (the lodge itself was beautiful too - the tree in the center grew up 2 stories and acted as a roof for the seating area)
^ Even the chief was helping us to dig a permagarden near my site!
^ Leaf bug
^ Zima and Zemba have become friends, the cat runs around the tortoise but never touches him - and the tortoise doesn't seem afraid of the cat
^ Our halloween costumes
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